We continue our comments on the manuscript sent to us by a Mormon called Stephen.(*) Click here to see the other articles in this series. You can also go to the Mormonism page to find all the articles that are in this refutation of Stephen’s document.

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Stephen continues:

The next time someone tries to say you are nothing, point out these beautiful verses of truth.

Yes, Satan said this to Jesus when he was tempting Him, and he also tempted Eve with the same idea of being gods… Well, we are not nothing, just the chief sinners like Paul! Only in Christ we have our true value, and not in the flesh.

Stephen continues:

You are something, someone very precious in the eyes of your Father.

On the contrary, the Bible says you are a sinner, someone who is under the wrath of God: “He that believes on the Son has life eternal, and he that is not subject to the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him.” (John 3:36) Without Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you are in enmity with God and you are under the wrath of God. Only in Christ Jesus you are in a filial relationship with God. Only those who have Christ are the children of God, as we have seen in details.

Stephen continues:

Remember, the Lamb has “made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth.” (Rev. 5:10) When was there ever a king without his own kingdom?

The Lamb has not made Mormons and all sinners anything but objects of His wrath. They need to repent and believe in Him in order to reign WITH Him. It’s the same Kingdom, and it’s the same ruling method. And no, it is not a worldly kingdom as Stephen imagines. We can talk about this in more details in the concerned place. For now, let it suffice to say that the only King is Jesus Christ, and we in Him. Without Him we are lost sinners who only deserve God’s wrath and judgment. But Mormons and their father do not want you to know this truth so that you may not repent and come to the knowledge of the truth.

Stephen continues:

We know why God gave us life. But how will He deal with us justly? I recall a discussion with a devout EC who made several claims: We ‘Mormons’ are destined to Hell because we worship a different Christ.

If God would deal with us only justly, then we all deserve Hell. But of course Mormons have no idea about how God’s Justice can agree with His Mercy. God is Just AND the One who justifies the one who has faith in Christ: “for [the] shewing forth of his righteousness in the present time, so that he should be just, and justify him that is of [the] faith of Jesus.” (Romans 3:26)

Not just Mormons are destined to Hell, but all sinners who don’t have the real Christ. It seems that Stephen would prefer that all be saved, even those who refuse the real Christ?…

Stephen does not know what he is talking about. As he doesn’t understand these things, so he thinks he has the right to accuse the biblical Christians with strawman arguments, by attacking heretics instead… Those “born-again ECs” are heretics, so Stephen takes pleasure in attacking them, as if the existence of heretics proves Mormonism is right… We have met this kind of lame and ridiculous arguments in other places of Stephen’s document.

Well, I will just give here a hint about a doctrine that Stephen and those heretics do not understand. The one who is born of God CANNOT sin: “Whoever has been begotten of God does not practise sin, because his seed abides in him, and he cannot sin, because he has been begotten of God.” (1 John 3:9) If you want to understand this truth in a deeper way, you can read our article A true Christian is a saint — Perfection in Christ.

So it’s not true that the one who is once saved in his opinion, he is always saved in truth; the one who is truly born of God will surely persevere to the end and thus reach final Salvation. We have seen all this in details in our article How to be saved?

Stephen continues:

you cannot fall from grace.

Stephen has no idea what it means to “fall from grace”. We have seen how he still doesn’t know what it means to be in grace and how one is saved, so how will he understand what it means to “fall” from grace?… If he doesn’t know how 0ne is in grace, how will he know how one is fallen from that same grace?… I will explain this when it is needed. For now, you can read the following article that is related to this topic: Some questions about Hebrews 6:4-6.

Stephen continues:

There are no different kingdoms or degrees of glory in Heaven.

I am sure Stephen has no idea what he is talking about… But he is using sarcasm now… When one is using ridiculous arguments, such sarcasm turns against him, as you see…

Stephen continues:

Everyone in mortality has opportunity to know Jesus Christ. Those who do not accept Him—even if they never even hear of Him in mortality—are destined to Hell, their final resting place.

I then posed a hypothetical story, synopsized as follows: A middle-aged man accepts Christ as his personal Savior, but fails to convert his family. Over time, family contention prevails and, in a fit of rage, the man kills his family. He then aims a gun at the police who kill him before he can even ask God for forgiveness. Down the street, a thirteen-year-old Jewish boy who never heard of Christ tells a lie to his mother to get out of trouble for coming home late from school that afternoon. He is sent out to play and is hit by a car, killed instantly.

It’s not enough to accept with your mind Christ as your personal Savior in order to be saved; you need to be born of God. The one who is born of God is already clean, and he doesn’t get unclean and then clean again when he asks for forgiveness. We have seen this, and also how the one born of God cannot sin, in our article A true Christian is a saint — Perfection in Christ. The one born of God does not continue in sin. There is really a wrong idea these days about the new birth: people think that anyone who mentally accepts Christ as his personal Savior is born of God. This wrong teaching results from long years of preaching about “decisional salvation”. To understand the danger of such false teaching, please watch the following video:

In the following lines we will see the wrong assumption that is behind this hypothetical story.

Stephen continues:

I then asked, “So, did this man who killed his family and failed to repent before committing ‘suicide by cop’ go to Heaven because once saved, always saved? And did this young boy who never even heard of Jesus Christ and died before he could repent of his little white lie—the biggest sin of his young life—go to Hell?”

“Absolutely,” he replied.

No, I cannot know whether that man went to Heaven or not, because I can’t know if he were really born of God. We leave the judgment to God who ALONE is the Judge and knows the hearts. Only God knows who are really born again.

As for that young boy, he was grown up enough to know his sins and to understand God’s call to repentance. So whether he heard about Jesus or not, that doesn’t change the fact that he is a sinner and deserves Hell. If he didn’t repent, then he is surely going to Hell. We have seen the details about this in our article What about those who have never heard about Jesus? But let me add a little but important detail here: I am sure this young boy heard about Christ just as much as Abraham heard in the Old Testament time, and even more! To Abraham it was revealed about the coming Christ, and Abraham believed in the coming Christ and he was saved by that faith. To the Jews it was revealed even MORE about the coming Messiah, so this young boy, who is a Jewish boy as Stephen told us, has surely heard in his religion about the coming Christ, even if he has not heard about Jesus! So he is accountable for refusing to believe in this coming Christ (Jesus is just a “yet to come” Christ for this young boy, because he never heard about Him as Stephen supposes).

And no, there is neither a white lie, nor a rose lie nor a green lie… A lie is a lie, and it is always black, it is always darkness, it is always bad! Lie is a sin and its wages is death! Without Christ, no one can be saved from this sin or from any sin. Stephen is trying to preach that some sins deserve the judgment of God while others don’t, but the Bible is clear about this; the Bible does not put a distinction between sins; it clearly says that the wages of sin, any sin, is death (see Romans 6:23).

It is really sad that Stephen thinks we become sinners when we sin a certain sin, as if an act makes a person what he is naturally. Sin is not just an act, but our nature that we received from Adam, the nature which is separated from God. The Bible calls this fact being in the flesh, or fleshly, carnal. Naturally, every human is fleshly, whether he sinned in a particular day or he didn’t. The Bible says that he cannot please God, because he is in the flesh. We have seen the details of this before. Only those whom Christ has saved are in the Spirit and thus are freed from the law or principle of sin and of death.

Stephen continues:

“Then you are absolutely right. We do worship a different Christ,” I returned.

Thanks for admitting that, Stephen. So read the following article: Should we associate with the Mormons? So it is resolved: Mormons do not believe in the true Christ, because they believe Christ is a Savior whom we can avoid and still be saved… So Christ is not the ONLY Savior according to Mormons, but people may save themselves also…

Stephen continues:

Why this extreme separation of doctrine between two professed followers of Christ?

Because both do not believe what the Bible says, but they have added to it their human teachings.

Jesus said:"If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
"Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple."
"So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions."
(Luke 14:26, 27, 33)

You can't be a true disciple of Jesus Christ if you're still attached to the world.

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""Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." The great point, then, is, that we are consecrated and dedicated to God, and, therefore, should not henceforth think, speak, design, or act, without a view to his glory. What he hath made sacred cannot, without signal insult to him, be applied to profane use. But if we are not our own, but the Lord's, it is plain both what error is to be shunned, and to what end the actions of our lives ought to be directed. We are not our own; therefore, neither is our own reason or will to rule our acts and counsels. We are not our own; therefore, let us not make it our end to seek what may be agreeable to our carnal nature. We are not our own; therefore, as far as possible, let us forget ourselves and the things that are ours. On the other hand, we are God's; let us, therefore, live and die to him (Rom. 14:8). We are God's; therefore, let his wisdom and will preside over all our actions. We are God's; to him, then, as the only legitimate end, let every part of our life be directed. O how great the proficiency of him who, taught that he is not his own, has withdrawn the dominion and government of himself from his own reason that he may give them to God!"

John Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion Book 3, Chapter 7, Section 1

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